Thread: Story about our next generation, Per my Son

He calls me last evening and begins to tell me his story. He's in the USAF and had a couple of days between the end of one tech class and the start of the next. His Master Sgt looking for busy work decided they would do some landscaping and leaf clean up. They get to the equipment shed and there were three nearly new Tanaka handheld blowers and a couple of warn out no name's in there that were missing parts. The Sgt handed out rakes to the group and told the two "no necks" to try to get the new blowers started. The weight lifters yanked the cords for several minutes without getting them to fire, they, exhausted, gave up and grabbed a rake. My son asked if he could give it a try and his Sgt dissed him, saying if the two body builders could not get them started why do you think you will have better luck. He just said that he'd been working with outdoor equipment for most of his life and would love to try. After a brief inspection, found straight gas in all three of the new ones, one was stuck and the pull cord had no affect. He took a straw and put a few drops of 2 cycle oil in the plug holes, pulled them over a bunch, the stuck one still did not loosen up. Filled the tanks with mix and had two of them running in a few minutes, following the clearly marked starting procedure. We both discussed the current generation of youngsters that have never been educated with any mechanical aptitude, or the ability of working smart and not just hard.

He calls me last evening and begins to tell me his story. He's in the USAF and had a couple of days between the end of one tech class and the start of the next. His Master Sgt looking for busy work decided they would do some landscaping and leaf clean up. They get to the equipment shed and there were three nearly new Tanaka handheld blowers and a couple of warn out no name's in there that were missing parts. The Sgt handed out rakes to the group and told the two "no necks" to try to get the new blowers started. The weight lifters yanked the cords for several minutes without getting them to fire, they, exhausted, gave up and grabbed a rake. My son asked if he could give it a try and his Sgt dissed him, saying if the two body builders could not get them started why do you think you will have better luck. He just said that he'd been working with outdoor equipment for most of his life and would love to try. After a brief inspection, found straight gas in all three of the new ones, one was stuck and the pull cord had no affect. He took a straw and put a few drops of 2 cycle oil in the plug holes, pulled them over a bunch, the stuck one still did not loosen up. Filled the tanks with mix and had two of them running in a few minutes, following the clearly marked starting procedure. We both discussed the current generation of youngsters that have never been educated with any mechanical aptitude, or the ability of working smart and not just hard.

Good story, I'm sure it felt good that your Airman son showed a MSgt...